Riot
by InsuperableMisnomer
Summary: Clare is your average class nerd. She is super smart but what she really longs for is to fit in. Gone are her glasses and braces of freshman year and a new confidence is within her. Will this change when she meets the bad girl from a broken home with a very attractive boy friend? Rated T for first few chapters but will more than likely switch to M rating.
1. Shark in the Water

**Hey guys, long time no post, eh? Sorry about that. I'm working like crazy, who knew fast food is where the money is at? And in most of my free time I'm with my boyfriend or best friend and any rare occasion that I am on a computer, I usually don't have enough time to cook up a story. But this idea came to mind and I was super duper inspired so I just had to make time for this story. Being grounded right now helps.**

**Now, about the story. Since I decided to go back in time to around the beginning of season ten, the timeline is super duper fucked up and also I moved some people and put them in the grades I felt like they should be in because I am God :O. So let me get that somewhat cleared up for you. I'll make a list of who is in what grade. Some people may not even be mentioned in this but I feel the need to list any and all characters that I might use.**

**Freshmen: Zig, Maya, Tristan, Tori, Chewy, Zoe, Cam, and Harry.**

**Sophomores: Miles, Clare, Alli, Imogen, Jenna, Adam, Jake, Connor, Becky, Luke, Wesley, Dave, and KC.**

**Juniors: Katie, Fiona, Declan, Owen, Bianca, Fitz, Marisol, Julia, and Mo.**

**Seniors: Eli, Holly J, Anya, Darcy, Sav, Drew, Bruce the Moose (drop out), and Chantay.**

**Possible Graduates to appear: Alex, Jane, Ellie, Manny, or Mia.**

* * *

I walk out of school with Alli, a little smug about my revenge on Jenna. It will sure teach her not to start rumors about me. I wondered if I actually could get KC back, Alli suggested that I should do exactly that but I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to. He felt like he was apart of my old life. Lately I had been having similar thoughts about Alli. I wasn't quick to say so but I felt as if I had outgrown her. Her childish cries for attention, and deep down I knew she'd drop me the second she found out it would increase her popularity. I silently resented her and was annoyed by everything she did and said.

We were arguing about whether or not I should "go back to the old me" by wearing my glasses again. I was thoroughly disappointed that no one seemed to notice or care how completely I had changed. I didn't really want to go back to being the nerdy freshman I was a year ago but it took the focus off Alli's complaining about how no boys had asked her out yet this year. We were wrestling with my glasses in hand and they flew into the street to be crushed by the front tire of a black hearse.

My heart started racing the second a boy in all black stepped out of the car that was blaring angry rock music and handed me my mangled glasses. "I think they're dead." Commented the deep sound of his voice.

I was trying to not melt into a puddle while I stammered about how I didn't need them anymore because of my surgery and his dark green eyes flew to my baby blues. "You have pretty eyes." He said bluntly.

I was at a loss for words and came up with a lame "So, I'll see you around?"

With a smirk, he replied "Guess you will." as he strolled back to his oddly fitting car.

The next day I sit in my English class happy that it was Friday and that I could spend my weekend catching up on my fan fiction. But despite my excitement for the weekend I was still lost in thought, my mind stuck on this boy whose name I didn't even know. Ms. Dawes begins assigning our partners that we will be working with for the next year while I begin doodling a face in my notebook. A face with piercing eyes, a smirk, and dark hair covering half of it.

"Clare Edwards" Ms. Dawes says and pauses, "and Julia Milani." I look across the room to see a girl in black skinnies, black converse, and a tight black corset top that gave no mystery to how much cleavage she had, with a bright red sucker in her mouth that almost fell out when she gets a huge mocking grin when she realizes who she's been paired with.

"Now, you all have noticed that I haven't paired you with your usual friends and that is because I don't want everyone wasting the year talking and gossiping while you could all be writing wonderful pieces of work. You will also see that your desks have been set up in groups of two. Please go sit next to your partner."

The girl sashays across the room making a show of her small but pronounced curves. She sits in the desk next to mine with the same grin still on her face. "Looks like its you and me, baby face." She cackles and I feel as if I have been left out of some kind of inside joke. "So what grade are you in anyway? I haven't seen you around before." She asks when I don't respond.

"Tenth." I state proudly.

"So you're in the smart English class for your grade. Big whoop." She rolls her eyes rudely. I want to tell her that I have worked very hard to get here, that I am proud of myself, and that she is probably not even going to pass this class when I'm going to ace it. But something stops me, and I realize that for some reason, I want this girl to like me.

"It's no big deal." I lie. "I just wanted to get my parents off my back about 'excelling in school.'" I go on. "I just wish I was with my friends." I frown at the last statement, knowing that it was true.

She fakes hurt. "But I thought that we were going to become friends." Then she lets out her sexy cackle again.

The bell rings, and I leave the room, thoroughly confused as to what just happened. I walk out of my classroom and Alli is suddenly next to me complaining about some Drew or Dave or some other boy. I didn't really pay attention, with the boy in all black still on my mind, now welcomed by this strange girl I'd been partnered with.

At lunch, I'm sitting alone waiting for Alli, knowing she probably won't show up because of her recent reconciliation with Jenna of all people. I sit at a picnic table under a tree near campus and begin eating my sandwich and reading my newest vampire fantasy book. I almost choke on my tuna as someone plops down across from me.

"So Baby Face, I'm guessing you haven't got any cigarettes I could bum." Julia asks tauntingly.

"No." I look down feeling guilty for some stupid reason. Why should I feel guilty about not having cigarettes to give to her? What was wrong with me today?

"I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask." She shrugged. "See you around." She smiled teasingly. She begins to get up and as if on second thought, turns around and asks. "Are you busy?"

I shrug, my mouth full of another bite of my sandwich.

"Good, come with me." She demands and waits impatiently for me to grab my stuff.

Once my things are packed, I follow her around to the back of the school and she begins walking to the woods.

"Won't we get in trouble?" I ask, not wanting to receive detention or any kind of suspension for leaving school grounds.

"'Won't we get in trouble?'" She mocks and then unleashes her cackle. "Simpson never goes back here and with it being lunch, no one will ever notice that we're gone."

"Okay." I reply unsteadily, still unsure about breaking the rules. Little did I know, everything was about to change.


	2. A Whole New World

We enter the woods and follow a path that seems to have been worn out into a trail of dirt. We come to a clearing, canopied by trees with a run down van sitting a dozen feet away near a circle of logs set around a place for a fire. The area was littered with cigarette buts, condom wrappers, used condoms, along with empty beer cans and bottles.

There is a group of people here, some I have never seen at school, some that looked way too old to be in school, and some that are constantly late or truant to school. The usual suspects would include Bianca DeSousa, Fitz, Owen Milligan, KC Guthrie, Bruce the Moose, Mike Dallas, and Luke Baker. I see Bianca and Fitz making out against the van, Owen and Bruce passing a flask back and forth near the would be fire, and Mike and Luke sharing a joint with KC. The one person I thought looked familiar, but couldn't identify, had his back to me. Something seemed so familiar with that dark hair.

I see the boy who made me near melt yesterday turn around with a lit cigarette in his mouth and his arm around a small feminine looking boy. My heart starts beating fast almost on queue and I feel my cheeks fill with the warmth of a blush.

"Baby!" I hear Julia squeal and see her run and jump into his arms. My heart sinks. Of course they're together. It makes sense.

"Who's she?" The feminine boy asks nodding to me as I still stand near the opening of the clearing where we came in.

"This is Clare. My new friend." I almost choke on my own air when that sentence doesn't come out of her mouth sarcastically. She actually sounded proud more than anything.

"Come here, Clare." The boy in all black says my name slow and cool and my heart picks up again. Why am I having these strong feelings for him. I realize that he is still waiting and I timidly walk toward the two still not entirely sure of what was going on around me. "It's okay Clare, you don't need to be shy. We're not going to bite."

"This is my friend Adam." He nods to the boy next to him. "He's new here but you might know his brother Drew."

I nod, being fully aware of the sports superstar that Alli's had a crush on all through high school. She's wanted to be with Drew since the beginning of our freshman year but since she hangs out with the smart 'uncool' people like me and Connor she settled for Dave. Even though almost everyone in the school full well knows that if Drew ever paid Alli five seconds of his attention, she would drop Dave in a second.

"And I'm Eli." He gives me his sexy smirk I already am deeply infatuated with as I bite my lip.

Julia begins to pout at Eli and the two start kissing and if feel my stomach churn slightly while Adam and I stand awkwardly and make small talk. I felt so out of place in this hidden world I'd heard rumors about but never truly knew existed. Eli, Julia, and Adam are the only people in the Ravine to act like I belong here with the rest of them. I feel eyes on me and have an overwhelming sense that I am being judged by the people I tend to judge everyday.

I remove my flower headband, which I believed to be cute only a few hours ago, but now seemed childish and immature. I smooth the skirt of my dress which also had a flower pattern on it. I feel myself blush as the feeling of being outlandish builds and I wish I could crawl under a rock.

Eventually, the bell rings. Despite this, no one makes a move to leave. Eli and Julia don't stop kissing and Adam takes another drag of the cigarette he stole from Eli when he and Julia first started making out. Bianca and Fitz are nowhere to be found but I soon realize that they are in the std infested van doing God knows what. Jeez, how did I not hear their loud sex noises before now.

Mike, Luke, KC, and Owen leave Bruce with the pot and alcohol because they have football practice. (1)

"So are you guys going to the party tonight?" I hear Eli's smooth voice and look back to my group of misfits. Adam shrugs nonchalantly.

Julia turns to me. "So Baby Face, you up for a party?"

I turn a little red as I look down at my shoes and whisper "I've never been to a party before."

"Oh my gosh!" She cackles and says "That's so adorable! Now you have to come!"

I jerk my head up "Oh, well, I-I don't know if my parents would allow it. They're sort of strict."

Julia laughs again and I see Eli try to hide his smirk. "Oh Clarebear, you have so much to learn!"

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**(1) I've made the executive decision that all the sporty boys are in all of the school sanctioned sports. i.e. football, hockey, and basketball.**


	3. I Never Knew You

That night I am on Julia's front porch waiting for someone to answer the door. It's a shabby old house, kind of small looking with peeling paint and a BEWARE OF DOG sign in the front window. It's on a shady side of town that I was nervous about being on. I ring the doorbell harder, as the last time I pressed it, I didn't hear it ding. Sure enough, as the bell rings, a mean sounding dog barks with all his might and I jump a little as I hear the thud of his jumping at the door.

"I GOT IT MA!" I hear Julia screech. The door whips open and Julia looks at me expectantly. "Well are you gonna come in or not?"

"I-I, is the dog going to bite?" I ask timidly.

"Oh don't mind Chomper. She's the sweetest pitbull around. But you don't have to worry about her, my Ma put her out back. Come inside." I walk through the entrance and find that the outside of the house actually looked much better than the inside. Junk was piled everywhere and dust, which I'm allergic to, seems to coat everything. I sneeze rather loudly. "Sorry about the mess. My mother is a pig. It's actually really embarrassing. But since most days she's too drunk to remember last Tuesday, let alone the fact that she is an adult, cleaning isn't really much of a priority for her."

Julia leads me down the cramped hallway and into a door with satanic looking carvings on the outside. "Sorry about that," She gestures to the carvings. "I know you church people don't appreciate those type things. But I dated this satanist when I was in the eighth grade and I wasn't all that into him or the religion, but I thought the markings looked cool." She shrugs.

She opens the door and surprisingly, the inside of Julia's room was spotless. Everything was neat and organized. It looked similar to my room. That is, if my room had mostly black, blood red, and other dark colors as the theme. I spy a Marilyn Manson poster, along with Nine Inch Nail cd, and a Suicide Silence band bracelet at first glance around the room.

Her tastes were vastly different than mine, that was for sure.

"Okay Clarebear, let's get down to business. The party starts in a few hours. First thing's first, is that what you plan on wearing?" I look down at my flower patterned dress, the same one I had worn earlier. I kicked myself (mentally of course) for not even thinking of my outfit for the party of course I couldn't wear this. "I mean it's nice and all but do you have anything that doesn't scream 'kindergarten teacher?'"

"Um, no." I feel like an awkward preteen, no longer confident about the woman I thought I had became.

"Okay that's no problem we can go shopping." She gives me a cheshire smile.

We get into the the rusty Neon that was sitting in the driveway.

Is this your car?" I ask the strange girl in the driver's seat next to me as she turns the key and the car rattles a little bit before starting up.

"It might as well be." She says. "My mother hasn't had a license in years since she first started drinking and ended up hitting a kid on her bike. That of course didn't phase her. She spent a year or two in rehab 'getting clean' and the second she was out she bought a couple of 40's and I haven't seen her sober since. I think she feels bad about the car accident, and I believe that's why she binges so hard. Then again it could also be the fact that my dad walked out, the reason she started drinking in the first place."

We sit in silence the rest of the way to the downtown shopping mall. When we pull into the lot, Julia empties out her school bag onto her back seat.

"What are you doing?" I inquire.

"These mall cops are crazy." She responds. "They'll detain you for hours if your bag is full enough to look like you stole something. I don't have time for that today and neither do you so I suggest you do the same." I empty my bag as well placing my school supplies in a neat pile next to hers.

We get out of the car and head across the parking lot to the mall entrance.

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**So what do you guys think so far? Leave a review, I read all of them. :)**


	4. Awake and Alive

We enter the mall and Julia is a force of nature as she weaves in and out of the people holding my hand as I trail along behind her. We stop in front of Hot Topic. To be honest, I have never even considered stepping foot in a store like this. What with all the loud music, no lights, pierced and tattooed workers how was a person to think in there.

Everything in the store was unfamiliar to me. The short dresses, spiky heels, ripped tights, and combat boots all seemed like things I'd only seem but never thought about wearing for myself. Nothing in here was me at all. Until I saw a shirt it was light colored, had a unicorn on the front, and would cover my entire upper half. I found my size and held it up to myself.

"Put it back." I hear Julia command over my shoulder. "Wait," she said as I began hanging it up and she grabbed it out of my hands. She checked the size. "Okay now put it back."

She pulled me to the section with the dresses. She picked out a black and rather short corset dress. "Go try this on."

"Wha-, this?! No. Not me. I can't."

"You are totally capable. I even picked it out in your size. Now go." She pushed me towards the dressing rooms.

I went into the stall and took a deep breath. You can do this. I thought to myself. It can't be so bad. I took off my flower patterned dress and pulled the dress over my head. I took another deep breath as I zipped myself up. One last deep breath as I opened my eyes. I was astonished. I couldn't believe my newly 20-20 eyes. I actually looked kind of hot. I turned on my side, I faced my back to the mirror and looked over my shoulder. I looked at myself from every single angle possible trying to find something to shatter the illusion.

My stall door opened as Julia burst in. "Damn girl, you look good!" She chuckled. "We're totally getting that." I looked at the price tag as I put my regular dress back on.

"I-I can't afford this." I looked up at her.

"That is not a problem." She shrugged.

"What do you mean?"

"Open your bag." I did as I was told.

"They can't prosecute if they don't see you actually putting stuff in your bag." She put the dress, some black patterned leggings, and black lace up boots.

"Julia-I can't shoplift." I whisper the last word.

"You can and it's easy trust me." I couldn't deny that I wanted to take the stuff.

I put the bag on my back and notice Julia stuffing a tank top with a rib cage on it into her bag.

We walk through the rest of the mall in a similar pattern with less resistance from me. I couldn't shake the rush of the shoplifting. It was a high I'd never felt before.

We get back to Julia's house two hours before the party starts and I put on the outfit I'd gotten at Hot Topic. Julia sat me at her blood red vanity and straightened my hair. She did my makeup with dark shadowy eyes and dark red lipstick. I couldn't believe the person standing in front of me. I was a whole new girl. I didn't recognize myself at all. And guiltily I thought about how I couldn't wait for Eli to see me.

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**I know this was a short chapter but it was just a filler. Links of pictures of the things Clare and Julia got at Hot Topic are on my profile.**


	5. Like a G6

"So how did you get yourself out of the house tonight?" Julia asks as she dresses herself in the ribcage shirt she got along with some short black cut offs and some combat boots.

"I told my mom I was staying the night at a friends house." I said a bit proudly. I had never really lied to my parents before. It felt so exciting to do something bad. So far this day had been such a rush and we hadn't even gone to the party yet.

"Aw. That's so sweet. You're finally considering me you friend." She said with a wee bit of sarcasm to her tone. She put on some bright red lipstick as a final touch to her outfit. I couldn't believe how beautiful this girl was. It definitely wasn't the everyday girl next door type of beauty that I'd come to consider as normal. No, it was something different. She was...sexy. Looking in the mirror again I come to realize that I looked sexy too. I even looked a little tough. Gone was the meekness about me and the self doubt. I felt confident; more than I ever did after I got my braces off and my eye surgery.

Part of me had a lot of gratitude towards Julia for this new way of looking at myself. Another part of me felt guilty for coveting her boyfriend. A third part of me didn't trust her. Why did she want to be my friend? What does she get out of making me more like her? Why did she choose me? Why not someone more willing to go bad like the Matlin sisters? Katie because Drew cheated on her this summer and Maya because her boyfriend Cam killed himself this summer. Nothing new had happened to me over the summer other than my parents fighting a little more than usual and me not needing glasses or braces anymore.

"So are you ready to go, or do you need to look at yourself in the mirror some more?" Julia teased.

"No, I'm ready." I say with one last glance at the mirror.

We get into the Neon and Julia drives to what seems to be an even worse neighborhood. She passes through the neighborhood and we end up somewhere on the countryside. We slow as we come to a house with boarded up windows, graffiti on the outside, and even more trash than the Ravine.

"Well, we're here." Julia says proudly as we climb out of the car. I hear loud a loud bass all the way outside of the house and I see flashing colorful light through the open spaces where the windows should be. I see a lake out back behind the house with trees around it. There are a lot of cars outside and I wonder how crowded it will be inside.

When Julia lets herself and me in, I see that the old house is packed.

"Come with me into the kitchen." She has to yell in my ear. She grabs my hand and leads me past an archway that lead into the living room and I see a bunch of kids sitting around this glass tube that stands about a foot tall and had a bunch of small hoses sticking out of it. (1) They would suck on the hose and blow out smoke and they all seemed to laugh really hard when someone said anything.

We get into the kitchen and there is more alcohol than I had ever seen in my life. I saw bottles of every color you could imagine. I also saw a bunch of bottles of clear and brown liquid. There was a tray full of what looked like cups of Jello and bowls with gummy bears sitting in the clear liquid.

"Help yourself." Julia said as she grabbed a handful of the gummy bears and put them all in her mouth then wiped her hand on a paper towel. I looked around at the array of things and couldn't quite decide what I wanted. I reached for a styrofoam cup with a purple thick looking liquid in it (2) but Julia grabbed my wrist. "I don't know if that's quite your speed. Here, try this." She hands me a red solo cup that contained what looked like pink juice. "It's strawberry flavored. You'll like it." I take a sip and its not so bad.

Julia pulls me into the living room where the kids were smoking for the tube thing with their hoses and people were dancing to the loud music. I sway my hips with her as I take a few more sips of my drink and have to yell into Julia's ear. "What is this?"

"Kinky." She yells back.

"Well I like it." I say to myself since nobody can hear over the noise. I take another drink as I feel myself get a little dizzy.

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**(1) This is a hookah for those of you who do not know what that is.**

**(2) This is called Purple Drank. It contains strong cough syrup and sprite.**

**I know these chapters are short but I write better when I can get a little done at a time and this way I can post more often. :)**


	6. I'm So Sick

A few minutes later I am more stumbling than dancing and I realize that I should have eaten before drinking. I forget all about that as I see a blurry Eli come up behind Julia and begin kissing her neck. She brushes him off and whispers something in his ear. He glances up for a second and begins to do a double take and I realize that he's looking at me. His burning stare heats my entire core and I feel my face flush. I wonder why he's looking at me so strangely. After about what seems like a few minutes I realize that Julia made me over just about an hour ago. It seems like it has been at least a day since I was sitting patiently at her vanity while she worked her magic.

He mouths the word "Wow." over Julia's shoulder and she has her eyes closed as she sashays to the music.

He places himself in between us and gestures for us to lean in so we can hear him over the music.

"Do you guys wanna play truth or dare?" He asks. "Some people want to play it in the bedroom upstairs."

Julia rolls her eyes and says something like "That's so lame. I just want to dance." and she presses her behind into Eli's groin and begins swaying a little aggressively.

Eli shrugs and looks expectantly at me and just as I'm about to stay with Julia I hear myself say "I'm game."

Julia dances over to the people smoking and plops herself on the couch and Eli grabs my wrist and leads me out of the crowd to the stairs. I can't tell if he is intoxicated or not but I notice that I still have a bit of my drink left and I swallow the last gulp and throw the large cup at my feet. He manages to help me up the stairs where the bass isn't pounding nearly as loud.

"It's nice to get away from the noise isn't it." He says at a normal volume. I nod and we walk to the first door where there is a group of people sitting in a circle.

I recognize Bianca, Drew, Adam, Maya, Miles, Imogen, and Tristan. I didn't even know the freshman knew about this party. Drew and Imogen's appearances surprised me as well. But then again, I didn't know those two very well.

"My man, just in time!" Adam says happily and Eli and I join the circle next to each other.

"Who goes first?" I hear Imogen ask as she looks longingly at Eli.

"Why not the last person to arrive." Bianca says as she looks me up and down. "Miss Goody-Two Shoes over there."

I look at Eli and he nods, letting me know that this is okay. And I'm not sure if it's the alcohol or my new sense of confidence but I look Bianca right in the face and ask "Truth or dare?"

Bianca puffs out her chest and says "Truth."

"How many guys have you slept with?" I cross my arms satisfactorily and almost everyone in the circle has an open jaw.

She crosses her arms and tries to hide the blush on her face with a stiff upper lip. "Ten." She replies and Drew looks a bit nervous. She quickly turns to Miles and asks "Truth or dare?"

He gives her a sarcastic smile and replies with "Dare."

She gets an almost evil grin on her face and says "I dare you to take Little Matlin into the closet and do whatever you two want for two minutes.

Miles sarcastic smile wavers for a second and an expression of nervousness crosses his features. But he soon is back to his own self as he stands up and holds out a hand to help Maya up. "Well then, lets get along with this shall we?" He asks her.

She looks into his eyes and for a second it looked like the world stopped and just the two of them were alone and I couldn't tell if it was my buzz giving me this ability to read people so well or if my eyes were playing tricks on me. The two walk up to the closest and Bianca pulls out her phone and sets a timer for two minutes. We sit awkwardly in waiting for the duration of their two minutes in the closet and they emerge when Biancas phone beeps repeatedly. Maya's glasses were askew a tiny bit and her lips were swollen and her gloss was smeared.

They return to the circle and Miles turns to Maya and asks "Truth or dare?"

She blushes and replies with "Truth."

Miles then inquires "Am I an amazing kisser?" and raises his eyebrows at her.

She bites her lip for a second and quietly says "Yes." and her blush deepens. Abruptly, she turns to Tristan and asks "Truth or dare?"

He says dare and obviously not wanting to embarrass her friend, Maya dares him to eat the rest of the vodka bears that were in a bowl between the two. He gulps them down fast and turns to Imogen.

"Truth or dare?"

She grins and for some reason I feel a chill creep up my spine. "Truth." She says in a British accent.

In a diva-like manner, Tristan asks "Do you have any friends at all?"

Without wavering or missing a beat she laughs and says "The voices in my head are all that I need for company." No one says anything and needless to say, even in my tipsy daze, I am a bit creeped out. She faces Adam and asks "Truth or dare?"

He gulps and looks a bit scared as he replies with "Dare."

She smiles her wicked smile and says "I dare you to kiss Bianca."

He faces Bianca and the two lean in. They both pucker and their lips meet for about ten seconds and they pull away. He then turns to his brother and asks "Truth or dare?"

Drew says truth and Adam asks if he has slept with anyone in this room and he looks anywhere but Bianca and nods his head. He then turns to Eli and asks him truth or dare.

Eli smirks and he of course responds with dare.

"I dare you to take a Jello shot from in between Clare's boobs." I jerk my head up in response as I wasn't sure I heard him right and the rest of the circle except for Imogen chuckles a bit.

Eli smirks at me and in his eyes I see the same look that made my insides feel like they were going to burn me alive. I wasn't sure why this look in his eyes made me feel this way but I knew I loved the feeling inside me it evoked. Without taking his eyes off mine, he reaches for the tray with the Jello shots a lifts up a green one. He moves slowly towards me and I notice my vision is a bit fuzzy around the edges. He turns the small paper cup upside down and inch above my chest. I feel the coldness between my breasts and with his smoldering gaze he leans down and pokes his tongue out teasingly and licks around the Jello. When his tongue is on my skin I feel my whole body tingle and I begin to sweat as if it was a hundred degrees in the room. His mouth then envelops the shot and I feel his lips on me. I close my eyes and revel in the feeling. All too soon, he is a foot away from me again leaving nothing but a smolder in my core and a sticky feeling between my boobs.

"Dayum. That was hot!" I hear Adam chortle.

I realize that Eli's beautiful green eyes are still on my baby blues as he asks me "Truth or dare?"

I stutter out a "T-truth." And he gives me his lopsided smirk once again and to my surprise he asks, "What are you thinking?"

I sit stunned for a moment and realize that if I said that I was thinking about how good his lips and tongue felt on my skin, this entire circle of people I hardly knew, including Eli, would know about my newfound infatuation. As I open my mouth, still not sure what to say, I feel my stomach churn; and before I can say anything, I feel the burning liquid that felt a lot smoother going down creep up my throat, and my tongue feels fuzzy and tastes like pennies, and before I fully realize what was happening, I barfed pink liquid right in the middle of our circle.

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**So erm, that's chapter sicks for you. Oh, uh, I mean six.**


	7. Little Things

"Ah hell no." I hear Bianca say as she stands up and leaves the room. She is followed by Tristan, Maya, Miles, Adam, Drew, and Imogen.

I realize that Eli is still in the room and helps me up. "Of course Julia wouldn't be watching how much you drink when it's probably your first time. God, she can be so inconsiderate sometimes." I hear him mumble. He helps me get back to the kitchen where he gets me to drink some water and he feeds me some crackers.

But with the bass thumping and my ears pounding, I still have an upset stomach and a headache. I don't remember saying it but I must have let Eli know that I didn't feel well.

He grabs my arm and leads me through the house and out the front door. Later on, I realized that Julia was nowhere in sight. He leads me to the long black car, the same one that ran over my glasses just two days ago. He opens the passenger door and I climb (not gracefully) into the cab of the vehicle.

He opens the drivers door and I realize that I am laying on his seat. I make a move to get up and once he gets into the hearse I want to lay down again and he must know what I'm thinking because he says "Uh, if you need to lay down I guess you can. I mean you don't have to but I'm okay with it." and he gestures to his lap. Without thinking about it I lay back down and make myself comfortable. I believe I even hugged his leg a little bit.

He starts the car and he starts driving. I don't know where we're going but I realize that I don't care.

After an unknown amount of time, I feel the car stop. I sit up and realize that we are at a gas station. "Come on," he says, "we're getting you some hot coffee." I get out of the car and realize that after vomiting, I feel a lot better. But I'm still a little dizzy and figure coffee might make it better.

I follow him inside and he holds the door open for me. We go over to the section where you can make yourself coffee and I fill my cup half with french vanilla flavored coffee and add hot chocolate to the other half. I then proceed to add a pump of every flavored syrups offered to add to the coffee. I also add cream, sugar, and splenda.

I notice Eli giving me a funny look while holding his black coffee as I mix my concoction with the tiny coffee straw. "What?" He raises his eyebrows and nods at my coffee cup. "Don't judge me." I giggle and we walk to the counter and he pays for both coffees. "Thanks." I say as we walk out and he opens the door for me again. He then opens the passenger car door and I giggle again and say "Such a gentlemen."

He chuckles a bit and replies with "Don't judge me." and I can't help but blush.

"So, where to I ask?" Sitting up this time.

"I actually hadn't planned that far yet. Did you want me to take you home?" I look at the dash and it reads 2 am. If I stumbled in the house this late not completely sober, I would wake up everyone in the house and get grounded.

"As tempting as that sounds, I'll pass. But I don't think driving around a lot would help my stomach. Can we go hang out somewhere?" I can't believe the words that have come out of my mouth. I just asked a boy to hang out with me. A boy, who in fact, has a girlfriend who I'm pretty sure would kill me if she knew we were alone right now.

He smiles and says "I know the perfect place."

**So I don't want to be "****_that author_****" and I'm not going to threaten to stop writing the story because I write for my enjoyment but I do see the traffic graphs and I know you people are reading this story but what I ask of you is feedback. Tell me what you like or don't like about the story. As a budding writer, I need criticism to be able to grow in my work. Well that's all goodbye lovelys. :)**


	8. CrushCrushCrush

We drive for about a half hour and we wind up in what looked like the ruins of an abandoned church. It's dark but I can still make out the shape of it. We get out of the car and I almost twirl but I think better of it and ask "How did you find this place?" as I grin at my surroundings.

"Well I was off on one of my urban adventures and stumbled upon it." He says a little proudly. "I like to come here when I need to think."

"So, so I guess you bring Julia here a lot?" I twiddle my thumbs and look up at him.

"Actually she doesn't know about it."

"Why not?" I ask, my curiosity getting the better of me.

"I don't know really. Places like this, it's just not her thing. She's not much of an outdoorsy person and well when her and I get into fights I like to come out here to clear my head. If she knew about it, she'd follow me and sometimes I'd rather her not bother me." He shrugged.

"How come you brought me out here?" I look him dead in the eyes. "Don't tell me you're going to chop me into little pieces." I joke half heartedly when I realize I am once again on the end of his burning stare.

He shrugs again and with his hands in his pockets he looks down at his foot as he kicked a rock. "You don't bother me much."

I try to suppress my smile. And looking at my own feet I say "Oh."

"Come with me. I want to show you something." He leads me around part of the building to a hammock that I assumed he had put up. "This is my thinking spot." He sits down as if it were a bench and scoots over to make room for me. Because of gravity, my thigh is pressed into his. He smirks at me and I try not to melt and hope he doesn't notice that I'm sweating. "So, what's your story?"

"My-my what?"

"You know, your life story or whatever you wanna call it. I wanna know more about you." I try to ignore the fluttering of my heart.

"Well, I guess I wouldn't know where to start."

He begins to question me about ordinary things, who my friends were, what my family was like, stuff I like to do for fun, and my hopes and dreams for the future. It must have been the remainder of the alcohol in my system but I told him everything. I told him about how much my parents were fighting lately and how I was sure my mom was seeing this new guy, Glen; and how his son Jake, who was my age, was kind of an asshole. I talked about KC, I told him about the rumor Jenna had started about me earlier this week, and I even told him about how I was getting a little sick of Alli.

When I get sick of talking about myself I ask him to share with me his life story. I learn that the Adam guy has been best friends with him since they were little kids when Adam actually went by Gracie, I learned about his radio host dad and his loving but crazy mother, I hear about his passion for play writing and his love of Dead Hand.

We sat and talked until the sun rose and we ended up falling asleep in the hammock. A few hours later, I wake up and realize that my head was on his chest and his arm was around me. Realizing this, I felt my heart beat ten times faster. I sit up slowly, not wanting to wake him or tip over the hammock and I look at his face. When he was sleeping he looked like a little boy and it was one of the most adorable things I'd ever seen. He begins to stir and tear my eyes off him and look around at the church ruins.

"It's even more beautiful in the daylight isn't it?" I hear from over my shoulder.

"Yeah, it really is." I stretch slowly but not slow enough and before I know it, my butt is sore and we are both sitting on the ground. "I'm sorry! Gosh, I can't seem to stop embarrassing myself around you."

"Trust me, I've seen more embarrassing things." He says scratching his head as he lets out a yawn.

I give him a stern look. "More embarrassing than me puking all over last night?"

"Well...not really. That was pretty bad." He chuckles and I shove him teasingly.

I feel how warm it is and I look up and see that the sun is in the middle of the sky. "What time is it?" I ask, a little panicked.

"I'm not sure. I left my phone in the hearse. Do you have yours?"

"Mine's back at Julia's place."

He stands up and helps me to my feet and we walk back to his car. As we open the door, Eli's phone is ringing loudly.

"Hello?" He answers still a little sleepily.

_"__Where the hell did you go?"_ I hear Julia's voice on the other end. _"After being there like an hour, you both ditch me to play your stupid truth or dare game and nobody saw either of you the rest of the night. What the hell is going on?"_ Eli holds the phone away from his face as Julia stops shrieking.

"Well because of the fact that you weren't watching her, Clare ended up barfing all over and I took her home. I forgot my phone in my car and just came outside to get it." He lies and I look at the ground guiltily.

_"__Whatever. But she left her stuff here. Since you know where she lives do you want to drive over there and go get her? I would call to come get it her but her phone's here."_

"Sure thing." Eli says into the receiver and hangs up. "Sorry I lied to her. It's just you don't know Julia like I do and she's a bit...temperamental. Could you do me a favor and go along with the story I just told her?" He looks up with the devilish grin of a naughty little boy.

I roll my eyes and chuckle a bit. "What Julia doesn't know won't hurt her." I say, and return a similar grin glad to be in on the joke.


	9. Just Like You

We get into the car and drive to Julia's. As we pull into her driveway, I realize that I'm still in my clothes from last night and shrug it off. Eli walks right in her house and I follow behind him and we walk to Julia's room. I notice that she's in her same clothes from last night too and conclude that it's a normal thing.

"So how was your first party?" She sneered.

"Well I puked all over everything and had to leave early but other than that it was fun." I play it cool even though as I say the last part of the sentence I begin the remember all of Eli and I's night together.

"Well I was wondering if you wanted to hang out again tonight?" She says.

"Sure." I shrug and wonder what she had in mind and once again wonder why in the world she picked me out of everyone else to be her new friend.

"But, you have to shower first, here." She hands me some towels and points to the door of her room. "First door on the left."

Once I'm in the bathroom, I take out my phone. It's noon and so far no frantic calls or texts from Mom, surprisingly enough. I decide to call her. She picks up after three rings. _"Hello? Clare, honey, I'm having lunch with Glen and Jake, apparently your father couldn't make it. Do you want to meet us?"_ She lowers her tone. _"Jake's been asking about you. You know, he really is a nice boy. You need to get over the whole thing about him throwing dead frogs at you when you two were little."_ She makes a noise like she just had an idea. _"You should ask him to that homecoming dance this Friday! What do you think about that? I'm sure he'd say yes, you know I think he really likes you."_

I have to interrupt my mother to get a word in. "I think I'll pass on asking Jake to the dance but I was actually going to ask if I could stay with Alli another night. You see, we have this big biology project due Monday and she really wants to get it done on time. You know how her parents are."

She sighs. _"I really wish you'd give Jake a chance. But I supposed yous staying at Alli's another night will be fine."_

"Thanks Mom." I say and quickly hang up.

I quickly undress and climb into the shower. The hot water feels nice and it relaxes me a bit. I try to sort out this whole mess in my head. I like Eli. Big time. He's funny, caring, nice, not to mention attractive. But he's with Julia and after Jenna stole KC from me last year when we were freshmen, I promised myself that I would never do that to anyone else. Granted, I didn't think I'd ever be put in this position. But I doubt Eli even likes me anyways. He probably feels sorry for me since I'm such a goody two shoes nerd. And then comes the most confusing thing at all, Julia. I mean, I still don't understand why she wants to be friends with me. She's such a badass and I'm just this embarrassing excuse for a teenager.

"Clare?" Speak of the devil, and she appears. I hear the bathroom door creak open. "I brought you some clothes." I poke my head out and see the gray v-neck, skinny jeans, and converse I had gotten at the mall yesterday. Stuff I hadn't paid for. She set them on the counter and I put my head back under the water. I hear he sit on the closed toilet let and let out a sigh. "Look I feel kinda bad about last time I mean, I could tell that it was your first time drinking and I should have made sure you ate something and were drinking water with it. I wasn't thinking and it was kind of shitty of me." She huffs out.

"Thanks." I say a little surprised that she acknowledged it.

"Yeah, just don't expect me to babysit you now that you know better." She says and with that, leaves the bathroom. After I finish showering, I dress in the clothes Julia laid out for me. I look in the mirror and see that even with these clothes, I'm beginning to look like myself again without all the heavy makeup and as my hair air dries back into my usual curls.

I walk back to Julia's room and see that Eli had left. I make sure that I don't make any outward signs of disappointment. "So what are we doing tonight?" I ask.

"Well some friends of mine were having a little get together. Nothing close to last night."

"Good." I sigh with a bit of relief. Thinking back, last night was a bit much. What with all the people, and me puking my guts out.

"Just don't tell Eli about it okay?"

"What?"

"Well you see I'm going to have a this friend there and Eli doesn't really like this friend so it would really just be better for everyone if he didn't know."

"Okay I guess."

My phone buzzes and I read the text message from a number I don't recognize.

_I had fun last night. We should hang out more. -Eli_

I bite my lip to keep from grinning at my phone.


	10. It's Not You

**Hey guys sorry I haven't posted in a few days. I have sinus infection and I quite literally have been curled in a ball the last few days. Not to mention I have a mountain of homework due when I go back to school tomorrow. So you guys should consider it a treat that I'm planning to update between assignments. In other news, is anyone else excited about Aislinn getting an instagram? Her username is aislinnclairee.**

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"Who was that?" Julia points at my phone as I whip it behind my back.

"Oh, just," I say the first thing that comes to mind "It's just my mom."

"Oh please. That blush on your face isn't because of something your mother said." She rolls her eyes. "I know it's a boy. Who? Was it someone you met at the party?"

"A-actually, it was someone from the party. But I met him before last night."

"So? Who is this mystery boy?" She asks teasingly, reminding me a bit of Alli.

I search my mind for a boy fitting the description who isn't Eli. "Uh, uh..."

"Well, spit it out Clarebear."

The nickname reminds me of Jenna and before I know it I say "KC. KC Guthrie." To elaborate, I start babbling. "I dated him almost all of last year but right before summer break, this horrible girl who I thought was my friend, stole him from me and, and to make it all worse, earlier this week my friend Alli told her I was getting surgery, but didn't say that it was laser eye surgery because I used to have glasses and Jenna went around saying that I was getting a boob job made this awfully nerdy kid, Wesley, who has a crush on me, feel me up to see if I really did get my breasts enlarged and so Thursday, I stuffed my bra with socks and asked Jenna if she noticed anything and she accused me of getting a boob job just to get KC back and I took the socks out and explained that I got my eyes fixed and told her that if I really wanted KC back I wouldn't need fake boobs to get him."

"Wow. It takes balls to stand up to bitchy girls like that. So what does KC have to do with last night?"

"I, uh, well, he-he was at the party." I think I remember seeing a glimpse of him as Eli and I went upstairs. "And he asked for my number because Jenna deleted it from his phone and also because of your amazing makeover you did on me and he's been texting me ever since. I guess I still like him." I sat proudly with my little embellishment of what really happened. To be honest, I don't think I'd really like to date KC again.

"So, are you going to steal him back from Jenna? If so, we need to get you more new clothes, sexier clothes."

"I think I'm going to try." I say, trying to sound confident.

"Great!" She smiles and pulls me back to the car and we head back to the mall.

After our "shopping" spree, we go back to Julia's house and while I'm attempting to somewhat replicate the makeup she did for me last night, she texted on her phone.

"Sooo," She says slowly, to get my attention and I turn away from the vanity mirror to look at her. "A little birdy told me that KC was going to be at tonight's get together." She laughs excitedly. "annnd his little girlfriend isn't going to be there." She looks expectantly at me.

"Great." I smile, and try to sound excited.

About an hour later, we drive a short distance to a park near the school. I see a swing set, a slide, and a jungle gym. There is a few groups of kids, roughly about fifteen people, sitting around the picnic tables under the storm shelter.

As we approach them, the first people I recognize are a group of freshman boys smoking something out of a can with holes in it. I believe their names are Zig, Harry, and Chewy. I wonder if their mothers know where they are and start to giggle internally realizing that my own mother isn't aware of my location. I notice another group of boys that belong to the football team containing Cam, Luke, KC, Owen, Drew, and Dallas. They were sitting at a table all laughing really hard about something. I didn't recognize anyone from the group of girls except Bianca. She was grouped with some tough looking girls that she seemed to fit in well with. To be honest, it kind of reminded me of the girls from Crenshaw Heights in Bring It On: All or Nothing. (1)

Julia led me to the table of jocks and I stood and fidgeted, smoothing my skirt, fixing my hair, straightening my blouse, while she began talking to Dallas.

"Ay, it's the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."(2) He gestures to Julia.

"Hi." She pretends to look down all shy, and lower her voice to sound sultry.

"Who's your friend?" He nods to me, somewhat hidden behind Julia. I take a deep breath and step from behind her so I'm now at her sides.

"Whoa! Baby Edwards, my how you've grown." Dallas claps KC on the back "You lost that for some bubbly blonde cheerleader. Dang, she might even be better looking for her sister now."

KC looks at me after Dallas' comment and I can't help but smirk when his eyes widen. "Hey." I say to him in the manner that Julia greeted Dallas.

"H-hi." He stutters back.

I may not want KC back but with the guy I like being unavailable, what's the harm in a little flirting? I come to realize that this could be fun.

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**(1) If you have not seen this movie, I would describe this group of girls as multi-ethnic but could also possibly be described as "ghetto." **

**(2) I know that this is supposed to be Dallas' nickname for Katie after her stupid change to punk but since that whole transformation annoyed me to death, I'm choosing to ignore that it ever happened and replace punk Katie with Julia and have Katie stay her normal obnoxious self. (If you can't tell, I'm not much of a fan of her.)**


	11. Hey Britney

**So after five little assignments I have two essays/papers/whatever you wanna call long ass assignments. Oh, I almost forgot, tomorrow, I have to go around to all my classes and pick up what I missed Thursday and Friday too. Great -.- Thank you guys for being my distraction :)**

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Julia soon ends up sitting in Dallas' lap smiling down at him and I stand on the edge of the group a bit awkwardly. KC stands up, and asks me to take a walk with him, not really having anything better to do, I oblige.

"So, long time no talk." He comments and I remember all the well the last time we talked. If I recall correctly, I had told him that I'd see him in September after telling him and Jenna that I never wanted to talk to either of them again.

"Yep." I reply, not really sure what to say.

"You've certainly changed a lot over the summer." He says in an almost accusing tone as he puts his hands in his pockets.

"Well the braces had to come off sometime. And well I'm sure by now you know that I got laser eye surgery..." We begin walking the perimeter of the park.

"Yeah. Jenna's been trying really hard to clear that up. She feels really bad about the whole thing."

"Who knew she had feelings." I say to myself more than him as I flip my bangs off of my face.

"Yeah..." He says a bit nervously, like he thought I was going to go off on him.

"But it's whatever now. I mean people can think what they want. Maybe the fake boobs rumor will help me find a new boyfriend." I tease and nudge his shoulder.

"I could think of a few guys already interested." He says with a bit of hostility to his voice.

"Shut up. Like who." I smack his shoulder playfully, genuinely interested in who he thought was infatuated with me.

"Well Fitz for one, was asking me about you after seeing you at that party last night. Dallas has seemed to take a liking to you tonight as well and he's been drooling over Darcy for years. And that Jake guy I've noticed looking at you in school, but at school you've never looked like, well, this." He gestured to me. "I mean if you do, who knows what kind of perverts would be after you." He shakes his head as if trying to get certain thoughts out of it. "But they are all probably just interested in sex." He warns me, and I see a chance to mess with him a little.

"Aren't all boys at our age only interested in sex?" I ask and lift my eyebrows innocently at him.

"Well," He says, now becoming flustered. "I mean, but you don't need a guy who wants that." He guffaws. "You're, you're-"

"Baby Edwards, Little Edwards, Saint Clare, Clare Bear?" I list all my childhood nicknames and as he's about to agree with me, I say "Maybe I want to grow out of that phase." I shrug my shoulders. "Maybe I've changed." I look up at him and notice his eyes zero in on mine. "Maybe, I want to acquire some new nicknames." I smile and bite my lip for his benefit, and leave him by the playground and wonder back to Julia.

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**Okay guys I know that this is short but I still have two unfinished assignments that are due tomorrow. But I will update again soon! I promise. But keep in mind, I will probably have a lot of homework tomorrow and I need to put some applications in around town because I need a job like, yesterday. So if I go AWOL for a few days, please don't show up with pitchforks and torches at my house. I'll be back within the week!**


	12. Come & Get It

**Hey guys I'm really sorry about the late update. I'm still kinda behind on my homework but tonight I decided you guys deserve another chapter! :) Enjoy my lovelies.**

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Julia is in a full lip lock with Dallas as I approach the picnic tables. I couldn't help but be a little annoyed. I mean Eli was a great guy. Why keep him around when she's cheating on him?

"Oh Clare!" She exclaims when she sees me. "I'm glad you're here! We need to talk." She gets off of Dallas' lap and puts her arm around me. She steers me near the edge of the shelter so our conversation would be somewhat private. Out of the corner of my eye I notice KC approach his group of friends again and I smirked internally seeing that he still had a bit of a dumbfounded look on his face.

"Listen," Julia says slowly, bringing my attention back to her. "Drew's parents are out of town so he and Dallas have the house to themselves. Drew's spending the night at another one of the football player's house. I think his name is Luke. Since Dallas is home alone tonight, he invited me to stay just so he has a little company." She looks over my shoulder at him a lets out a tiny giggle and looks at the ground again. I turn around and see a big grin on his face.

"But you can totally go back to my house and get your stuff if you want. Like its unlocked and you know where your stuff is so I'm okay with it. You don't have a problem with that do you?" She asks, less of a question more of an insistence.

"Sure, I guess." I reply, not really sure of another answer I could give her.

"Great!" She smiles and walk back towards Dallas.

I stand at the edge of the shelter not really sure what to do with myself. With Julia throwing herself at Dallas, the only other person I really have to talk to is KC. I decide now is as good of time as any to go get my stuff from Julia's house. I check my phone and it's only 11 since I'd only been here an hour. I exit the shelter and begin to leave the park when I hear someone jog up behind me.

I turn around to see KC's face that at this moment somewhat resembles a puppy dog. "Hey," He says, out of breath as he puts his hands on his knees. "Leaving so early?" He asks, and I can't help but revel in the disappointment in his voice.

"Well Julia's ditching me for Dallas tonight so I have to head back her house and gather up my things." I shrug.

"Do you need a ride?" He asks hopefully. "I got a car over the summer." He states proudly.

"Actually, I think I'll walk." I say, looking around me though, it was a bit chilly for the outfit Julia had dressed me in, it was a nice night that was warm for early September.

"Okay." He said defeated, and as I walked away he yelled after me. "Wait, it's cold. Here, take my jacket."

I take the hoodie gratefully and slip my arms into the sleeves and he grins, with an accomplished look on his face.

"Thanks." I smile before turning on my heel and out of the streetlight.

Half an hour later, I come across Julia's house and walk in the front door. Her mom, most likely at the bar, is nowhere to be found. As I'm gathering up my stuff from her room my phone chimes, letting me know I have a text.

I see it's from Eli and can't help but beam.

_How's Julia?_

My smile fades as I reply.

_I wouldn't know. She ditched me so I'm gathering my stuff up from her house right now. No idea where I'm going though._

My phone chimes again a minute later.

_I'll come get you._

I smile and finish putting my things in my bookbag. I walk outside and Eli pulls up in his hearse a second later.

"I believe you've met Morty." He says and pats the steering wheel affectionately as I slide into the cab of the vehicle.

"I have." I laugh.

"So who did Julia ditch you for?"

I bite my lip contemplating telling him about her and Dallas.

"Bianca." I shrug. "They went to some dumb party of hers and Bianca wouldn't let me go with because she's had this vendetta against me ever since my sister kicked her off the power squad last spring." I remember Darcy constantly complaining about how Bianca was always too hungover to cheer properly before she asked her to leave the team last year.

"Typical Bianca with her Latina fire." He says a bit condescendingly. "It was kinda shitty of Julia to leave without you but then again she usually only cares about herself." He rolls his eyes. "Her and Bianca have this stupid long history though. Every other week they butt heads but in the end, they always end up friends again." He shakes his head.

"So what are the plans tonight?" I ask happily and I realize that I'd much rather spend the night with Eli than hanging out at the park with Julia.

"No idea. We could hang out at my house." He shrugs.

"Sure." I become grateful for the darkness as I feel the heat of a blush creep up into my cheeks.

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**Critiques and reviews are much appreciated! Update coming soon!**


	13. The Way

**I'm not gonna make excuses for going AWOL the past week I am a procrastinator but I WILL NOT leave this story unfinished and I WILL update at least once a week. Hopefully more though. I even drank coffee at 7 when I know I have school tomorrow. So you guys should feel special. Just saying.**

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The rest of the car ride is silent, but more of a comfortable silence than an awkward one. Soon we pull up to a house that I realize is just a few blocks away from mine because I always think about what a nice house it is whenever I pass it. The house isn't overly big but it isn't small either. It's two stories tall and has maroon window trimming with a front door to match. The house's color is tan which would usually be boring if not for the windows and the door. Darcy thinks it's ugly but I always do a double take every time I see the house. For some reason it makes me like Eli even more knowing that he lives here.

Eli opens my car door and I realize that I was sitting in the car staring at his house for an abnormal amount of time. We begin walking to the house and I become nervous about his parents. Wouldn't it be strange for me to come over this late?

Eli must sense my timidness and says "Don't worry about my parents. My dad is a late night radio host and my mother likes to go to the station with him most nights."

"Oh." Is all I can manage as I become even more nervous about he and I being alone together in his house.

We walk in the door and the inside of the house is as beautiful as the outside. Wood floors; and soft, fluffy carpets, and light tan walls with dark wood baseboards. The thing that throws me off is the furniture. Each unique piece matches nothing in the house. There was a brown plush couch, a black leather lazy boy chair, a dark wood coffee table that had a glass top, a round light wood end table, and a vintage stereo system underneath the tv.

As I am about to ask about the furniture, as silly as it seems, Eli, once again already knows what I am thinking. "My mother was the one to choose the paint colors and flooring of the house but since my dad felt left out, she begrudgingly let him chose the furniture. Against her better judgement if you ask me." He chuckles. I nod at this, now making sense of this used to be mystery house. "Enough about the house though, wait until you see my decorating skills." He teases, and to the mercy of my heart, grabs my hand and tows me to what I assume to be his room.

We go down the hallway and come across a door with a skull and crossbones halloween ornament with red glowing eyes. He opens the door and the room is just dark. The first thing I take notice of is the skull pattern on his pillow case. Littered across the walls are various band posters including Alexisonfire, Dead Hand, Sleeping with Sirens, and Escape the Fate. The dresser was covered in CDs of similar music. His room was typically messy for a boy, clothes covering the floor, bed unmade, and the desk was disorganized.

Eli sat right in the middle of the bed up against the pillow and patted the area of the bed immediately next to him as he grabbed a Wii remote and I turned behind me and notice the tv hung on the wall. I make my way to the bed and sheepishly climb next to him leaving at least half a foot of space between us.

He snickers at something and I self-consciously cross my arms and I see the screen on his tv flash bright red as the Netflix menu screen appears. "What would you like to watch?" He asks me. I shrug, not trusting myself to speak fluently. "Well what type of movies do you like? Action? Comedy? Romance?" He suggests the last category in a mock seductive tones. I just wish it were mock hormones that released when he said it.

"Anything." I say shyly.

He scrolls through movie titles for a while. He settles on a movie called 'American Pie.' I try to skim the description as he is the on the movie's menu screen but he clicks play too quickly for me to read past "Four teenage boys enter a pact to..." "What's this movie about?" I inquire.

"Watch the movie and see. You don't need to know what a movie is about before watching it because that ruins the point of even watching the movie."

"But how will I know if I like it?" I challenge.

"I asked you what you like and you said 'anything.' So I chose 'anything.'" He allows his lopsided smirk to slide across his face and sit back in a bit of a huff. "It's a bit bright in here." He says before getting out of his bed and switching off the light switch. The ambiance of the room becomes dark and his posters creep me out a little and I hope not to have nightmares. He climbs back into bed and is closer to me than we were before he turned the lights out. I feel as if he must have touched a thermostat too as I feel my body heat up when our hips and thighs touch. I don't move away and neither does he. I peak at him of the corner of my eye and his face gives nothing away as he stares blankly ahead. After a moment I realized I'm gaping at his handsome face and I close my mouth and turn my attention to the movie.

I quickly grasp what the movie is about when the opening scene is of a teenage boy caught masturbating to porn and then is caught by both his parents, the boy and his friends talk about what the third base feels like, and they attend a party not much different than the one we went to last night.

I am once again grateful for the dim lighting as my face blooms into a deep shade of red. Unfortunately, this adds to my body warmth and I glance at Eli again. He is laughing at the appropriate times of the movie and once again I can't read anything from his face.

This pattern continues throughout the first half of the movie and I hate to admit it but I felt myself become more inflamed when there were sexual scenes though they were supposed to be comedic. To my surprise and astonishment, Eli yawns over enthusiastically and his arm glides around me in one fluid motion. I tense up in shock and of course, look over at him and his attention is still focused on screen.

After a minute or so I relax a bit, remembering that this isn't much unlike how we slept last night. A short while later I realized we both have loosened up and were now laying down, both our heads resting on his pillow. I begin to get into the movie and though premarital sex is supposed to be against my religion, I find myself rooting for the four boys to complete their 'quest' and laughing along with Eli at their smutty conversation topics and jokes. Well the jokes that I got, anyways.

By the end of the movie, I'm asking Eli to put on the succeeding movie. Afterwards, we watch the third movie and by the end of it, it is almost 4 am. Eli turns off the tv and rolls so we are both on our sides, facing each other. We lie still in the bed, neither of us wanting to move. His arm is still beneath me and he puts his other arm around me and pulls me into a hug. My arms squish against his chest and I can't breath for a moment. He releases from his hug but I don't move away. I open my eyes and catch his eyes fixated on me. I admire the green hue of his eyes as they relentlessly gaze into my soul. This makes me realize how close our faces are, and how easy it would be for both of us to just reach a little further-

No, no I cannot do this. What am I thinking?! What am I doing? This is wrong. As twisted as Julia has proven to be in a weird way she is my friend. But she's cheating on him,- probably right this minute. But that doesn't make it okay for me to help her boyfriend to cheat. I shouldn't even be here. I shouldn't have let him come pick me up from her house. Well what else should I have done? I couldn't exactly walk across town in the middle of the night. I should have just had him drive me home. But what would I have told my parents? "I'm sorry I smell like pot smoke my new friend took me to the park after hours so she could be publically molested by some jock."? They would have been able to smell it if I would have went home. Then they would lecture me about how I should be more like Darcy, the perfect daughter, who never gets in trouble and is voted homecoming queen every year. Maybe I should have asked to go back to the church ruins. But we would have still been close like this if we wound up in the hammock again. We shouldn't have gone there last night either. Anything involving Eli seems to bring on trouble. If only he wasn't dating Julia, things would be so much different.

"What is going on in that head of yours?" He goads. "I can almost literally see the conflict going on inside your head. Tell me about it." He nudges me.

"You're trouble." I say before I think about what I'm saying.

He raises his eyebrows and I can't help but notice how sexy the look is on his face at this given moment. "How so? Please elaborate how I am 'trouble.'"

"Well, you, you smoke." I say, "You drink," I add. "You drive a hearse, you stay out all night, your mother and father obviously don't parent you, you listen to loud screamo music, you wear all black, you go to parties, you watch inappropriate movies, and you-you"

"I what? Can't come up with another condemnation?" He taunts me with his wicked, askew grin.

I huff, determined to finish my sentence. "You make me feel..."

I grasp for a word to describe the desire that has made me feel whole everytime I've been around him, since he first ran over my glasses only two, well I guess three now that it's 4 am, days ago.

"Uncomfortable? Disinterested? Indifferent? Frigid?" He suggests seriously but in a challenging tone. The words he says compel me to answer with the truth because they are exactly the opposite of how I truly feel.

"Enraptured." I say with an air of finality and not a second less than the word exits my mouth I feel his hot lips on mine; firm and questioning, but soft and reassuring. I surrender myself to the kiss, and our mouths begin dancing to a soothing but erotic rhythm, his embrace was everything I imagined it to be and we press ourselves closer to one another, only adding fuel to the fire we both are feeling. My arms snake their way around his neck and his toned arms pull me closer to him and our chests press against each other and it further provokes the flame. My shirt rides up a bit and my skin sears in the exact spots that his fingertips glide over on my lower back.

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**Well was that worth the wait or what? I have already started on chapter 14 but I don't think I'll finish it tonight but stay tuned for the coming chapters. I know that this chapter was kind of a big deal so I would love love love to hear some of your thoughts on it! Please?**


	14. First Time

After an estimated 15 minutes, we pull back from each other, panting and I hear him exclaim "Wow." In between heavy breaths. I don't say anything and lie still in his arms, afraid if I were to move an inch I'd wake up from what must be a dream. Eli and I catch our breath and stare at his ceiling for a few minutes until he breaks the silence. "What are you thinking?"

"Nothing." I say, realizing that my statement was absolutely true.

"You must be thinking something." He says.

"No, that's the thing though. Usually there are 20 different thoughts going through my mind at once but after that, all the voices inside my head are quiet. And I love it." I grin.

"That's good." He pauses for a minute, and I now realize that he must have a million things on his mind. "We should talk about this though." He whispers.

Of course, this ruins my blank mind and I finally begin to comprehend what has happened. I bolt up. I kissed Julia's boyfriend. I kissed Eli. One half of my brain is completely and utterly ecstatic about what had just happened and the other half is scared to death. I throw the covers off of me and begin to crawl out of Eli's bed. "I-I have to go. I'm sorry." I grasp onto the need to escape and I get out of his door before I hear him calling out to me. I make my way out of the front door and close it abruptly behind me and lean against it. I don't battle the impression that I am completely defeated and still not knowing where to go, I let my body sink to the ground and my back slides down the outside of the beautiful door. I draw my knees up to my chest and wrap my arms around them. I can't fight the tears threatening to fall from my blue eyes and I feel them streaming down my cheeks. My sobs are silent as they make my body convulse.

A few seconds later, I heard the door behind me open slowly. "Clare?" Eli murmured patiently. "Are you alright?" He sits down next to me and puts his arms around me. Instead of pushing him away, I lean into his arms and allowed him to cradle me. I remain muted and he whispers in my ear. "You're okay. Shh, shh. Everythings going to be okay."

I snicker cynically. "That's just the thing. It won't not now. Not after what we've done. Julia is going to murder both of us."

"She doesn't have to know." He suggests hesitantly.

"I guess. But what if it happens again?" I look up at him and our eyes meet and just feeling the electricity between our locked gazes, there was a fleeting moment of wanting to kiss him again.

"Do you think it will?" He raises his eyebrow at me again and I feel the heat of his stare and beneath the porchlight, there was no hiding the blush creeping into my cheeks.

"Do you?" I challenge and mirror his face.

"Yes." He breathes, and in that instance I can tell that I had the power over him that he does over me.

"Do you want it to?" I ask a little more confidently.

"Yes." He says again in the same tone still holding my stare. "Do you?" He asks unsteadily. I nod and once again, we lock lips for a while and it gets both of our hearts racing. "I'm sorry." He looks down as he pulls away. " I don't know what it is about you but I just feel this intense need to be near you but whenever I am I just want to touch you and keep you close to me." He rambles.

My mouth falls open slightly and I gape at him in surprise. "I-I don't know what to say."

"And I know all of this is crazy but Julia will murder me if I try breaking up with her. She won't leave me alone once and for all unless it's her idea to dump me. And she will make both of our lives hell if she knows that you're involved. I've been trying to get her to leave me for months now but she's the type of person will hold onto someone she doesn't care about just so she isn't alone." I nod at his ideology in agreement, knowing full well that she was probably waiting for Dallas to ask her out. "I don't want to ask you to wait for me or even to continue cheating on her with me. I just want to know that you'll be around. So I can see you and talk to you. We've only known each other a short while but I care about you a lot and don't want to hurt you." He clenches his fists in frustration.

I hug him and take a deep breath. "I understand the situation you are in. I don't want Julia to be hell bent on ruining our lives either. But either way I'm going to be hurting. Seeing you two glued to one another in the halls, knowing full well that I wish it was me you were holding hands with. Or if you break up with her and she causes drama for us everyday that's going to hurt too. I just don't know what to do Eli. The only thing that actually makes sense would be to let you date her but see each other in private. I hate to say it and I know that it's wrong but it's the only thing that will keep us both satisfied until Julia breaks up with you."

"Should we do this? I mean this can't be right but it makes sense and now that you're in my life I don't want to lose you even if it's just a short period of time." He cups my cheek in his palm. "I haven't wished that I never met Julia more than I do today."

I reach up and grasp his wrist with both of my hands. "I don't want to lose you either." I frown up at him and he pulls me to his warm chest.

"Come back inside." He stands up and offers his hand to help me up and I can't help but smile up at him as he pulls me up. We go back to his room and lay in the dark, cuddling. We fall asleep like this and promptly at 8 am my mother calls me but I let it go to voicemail. After she finishes her message, I listen to it.

_"__You need to get up for church honey. Hopefully you have enough time to come home and change into your church clothes. I'm leaving now to help serve breakfast but it starts at 9 and make sure you look presentable. Glen and Jake are going to be there."_ She says in a teasing tone and I roll my eyes.

I look over at Eli and he is fast asleep, his hair in a mess, covering his face and his lips puckered for the last kiss we shared before bed. I hear slight snores and I can't help but giggle at how cute he is. Since my house is only a block or two away I gather up my things and decide not to wake him up. I look out of his window (covered with black curtains of course) and see that it is a beautiful day.

Once I get back to my house I remove all of the heavy makeup, take a shower, brush my teeth, and curl my hair. I put on one of my flowery dresses and put a headband with a flower to match in my hair. As I'm slipping on my flats before walking out of the front door, I catch one last glimpse of myself in the hallway mirror and I can't help but think about how much has changed since last Sunday morning's sermon.


	15. Bite Your Tongue

I get to Church a few minutes late and slide into the back row. I see Mom, Darcy, Glen, and Jake all in the front row. Of course, father dearest has gone AWOL once again. I roll my eyes. I tune Reverend Baker out for the most part but the end of his sermon catches my ear. "We need to watch the example WE set for teens-Paul points out clearly and explicitly in 1 Timothy 4 that our example is very powerful. Adults, the kids are watching. If we're not consistent with our words and if we don't practice what we preach, they'll seldom follow our directions. It's critical that we as adults set an example for the younger generations in speech, life, love, faith, and purity if we want them to do the same. I was blessed not only to have parents who made sure that they took me to Sunday school and church, I had a dynamic youth minister, dedicated youth sponsors, and some older men in my church who encouraged me and helped guide me in my faith. Far too many young people lack those kinds of role models today. That's why we as adults need to be very cautious to set an example in both our actions and our attitudes."

Upon hearing this, I snort to myself. The one sermon my father should be present for, he misses. But then again, it isn't unusual for him to miss church. My moms been the one pushing a bible on my sister and I all our lives.

As Reverend Baker wraps up, his annoyingly perky daughter, Becky, stands in front of the church and sings amazing grace. I see she'd brought a new friend to the sermon as I see Jenna sitting next to Luke, Becky's athletic twin brother. The seemed to be sitting a bit close to each other for being in church. Poor KC, a fellow football team member is with his girl. In church, of all places. My suspicions were confirmed when she grabbed his hand. Jeez, is anyone staying faithful to their significant others? But I am not going to clean up the sad mess that KC is going to be when he finds out about this.

After the official part of church is over my sister and her annoying cheerleading squad have a bake sale in the banquet hall which Becky and I 'volunteered' to help. The youngest girls, the two freshmen who look like sisters, Tori and Zoe, are in the very back throwing flour at each other and wiping frosting on each other's noses. Jenna is next to Becky, and I over hear the bubbly blondes talking about Becky possibly trying out for the Spirit Squad. Jenna also mentions how she might get her friend Alli to try out too. Of course Alli is still hanging out with Jenna behind my back. Katie and Fiona, the only juniors on the squad, glare at each other from across the counter. Chantay is telling her cousin Marisol about her boyfriend Danny who is away at college. And Darcy, being a senior for the second time because of the fact that she went to Kenya for charity work for most of the school year last year is loving being the captain of the team and therefore, being able to boss around Holly J and her mousy friend Anya.

I am in the corner, doing as little work as possible and I check my phone. I bite my lip upon seeing a text from Eli.

_Where'd you go? The bed's cold. :'(_

_I had to go to church._ I text back._ I would still be there if I could be._

_Is that Jake guy there?_

_Yes_.

_Is he staying away from you?_

"Ahem." I hear someone clear their throat on the other side of the booth. Speak of the devil.

"What do _you_ want?" I ask hostily.

"I bet you could guess." He winks at me and I pretend to gag. "Come on, don't be like that."

"Look, you buy some cookies or something or go away." I glare at him.

"I'll buy some of _your_ cookies." He tries to sound seductive and wriggles his eyebrows.

"Please go die." I say.

"Clare! You know that's not how Mom raised us to talk to people!" I hear Darcy from behind me and roll my eyes.

"Yeah, Clare. I'm sure your mom wouldn't like to hear that you're being rude to me." Jake mocks. "You know your mom and my dad are getting pretty close with your father 'working' all the time. Maybe we'll be in laws." He winks. "Then we'll be living in very close quarters." He leans in and acts like he's not trying to flex his arms.

"First of all I doubt it. Second of all, that's like incest. And third of all, EW." I say and exit the bake sale booth.

I end up walking home and going to sit in my room. Why the hell would he say shit like that? My parents are still together even though they do fight a lot. It's just because he works a lot at the firm. Lawyers tend to work a lot. I find myself wandering to my dad's office and I sit at his desk in his wheely chair. I wish he'd actually use this office but he claims that he can't focus here. Being my nosy self, I begin opening drawers and cupboards. I find a large, official looking manilla envelope addressed to my father. I shift my eyes towards the door even though I know everyone will probably be gone for a few more hours.

I peak in the package but I can't read anything. I turn on the desk lamp and pull the papers out. My dad was served with papers for court. He was being sued. Upon reading further into it, I realized that they were divorce papers, from my mother. My mom was suing him for cheating with some woman named Iris. Come to think of it, that was his secretary's name. I read more of the papers and realize that my mother had been unfaithful too. With none other than Glen Martin.

I feel my stomach churn and hold back the tears as I run out of the front door. I dial the first person I think to call.

_"Hello?"_

"Can you come get me?" I beg in between sobs.

_"I'll be right there."_

*Dial tone*

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**How are you guys? So I think I've gotten better about updating this week so you're welcome. Hope ya'll enjoyed! New chapter soon!**


	16. Crash My Party

A few minutes later, Eli pulls up and leaving the car running, he jumps out of the car and runs to me still sobbing on my front steps. I feel him wrap his arms around me and hear him ask "What's wrong?" I shake my head, signaling that I don't want to talk about it. "It's okay, you don't have to say anything." He coaxes me to my feet but I can't hold myself up, stricken with grief, my body slumps against him. He catches me and walks me to the car.

We drive the short distance to his house. In the driveway, I see a maroon Chevy impala, obviously a mom car. He looks around at his house and looks at me. "Come on. We'll have to go around back. I'm sure you don't want to meet my parents like this."

Since I've calmed down a little he guides me to the back of his house and I watch in a hint of peculiar amusement as he expertly pops the screen of his window and slides the glass upwards. He turns to me. "Come here." He holds his arms out to me almost like he was inviting me into a hug. I walk forward, unsure about what he has in mind. Surprisingly, he does hug me for a minute, standing near his window. After we let go, his hands slide down so that they are on either side of my waist. Suddenly, I'm lifted so that I'm sitting on the window ledge and he is standing between my legs. He smiled up and me and I couldn't help but smile through my tears. He kissed me on the lips and nodded forward, signalling that I should go into his room. I obliged and he followed me through the window.

I sat down on his bed not really sure what to do with myself. He sat down next to me and put his arms around me. For some unknown reason I couldn't think of anywhere else I'd want to be right now when only a week ago, I had no idea who this boy comforting me was. Ignoring the shit storm of the fact that his girlfriend was my new best friend and she was going to murder us both when she found out that we had been sneaking around her back with each other. But then again, she was cheating on him too. Oh and not to mention the fact that my parents were also cheating on each other and proceeding to divorce each other.

I buried my face in Eli's shoulder not wanting to deal with any of the stress I was feeling right now. He must have sensed this and held me close to him patiently waiting for me to talk. A few minutes later, I looked up at him and he returned my gaze. He brushed a wayward curl from my face and pushed it behind my ear. Despite the mess of feelings going on inside me, the simple action still caused me to blush. I wondered if he knew exactly what he did to me. I reached up and grabbed his wrist, holding it to my face and he moved to cup my cheek.

He kissed me then, with as much intensity as we had shared last night and before I knew it, I was out of breath, and had forgotten all about my situation. My only thought was that I wanted to be more numb than this, I wanted to be even more detached. I was ecstatic at the fact that I wasn't completely empty but still unfeeling towards everything bad, and therefore everything that wasn't Eli. I felt the need to be near him, closer, and I layed on his bed pulling him with me onto the mattress. Without breaking our kiss he situated himself above me so that we were both comfortable. One of his legs rested between my thighs and with one of his hand, he pinned both of my arms above my head. He broke our kiss and before I could pull him back for more, I felt his warm lips on my neck, biting, licking, and sucking. It was more intense than anything I had ever felt before as he continued giving me a hickey.

He began kissing me again and released my hands. Moving on instinct, I pushed his leather jacket off of his shoulders and he finished taking it off and threw it into some corner of his room. Taking the lead, he hugged my body to his as my back arched and I loved feeling his chest against mine, even fully clothed. This thought made my mind wander to what it might possibly feel like to feel our chests against each other without the burden of clothing. The idea alone made me shiver and I was suddenly greeted with the feeling of Eli's leg rubbing the area between my thighs. I began to moan when I heard Eli's bedroom door swing wide open. "Eli honey? I've got some laundry done finally and-oh my gosh!" The thud of her dropping the laundry basket could've shaken the whole house or it could have been the fact that whatever Eli was just doing to me was still giving me the shivers. We bolted upright and both of our faces were tomato red. "I'll uh, give you two a minute." She quickly picked up her laundry basket and closed the door swiftly behind her.

"Uh, we should uh." He pointed at his door and I cautiously nodded, bracing myself for the humiliation about to come as I hurriedly fixed my hair and dress.

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**Sorry for the short chapter and long update time. Leave a review and maybe I'll get back to ya'll a bit quicker. :) **


	17. All Around Me

We went into the living room and I sat on the brown couch with Eli next to me. His mother was sitting in the leather lazy boy. "So Eli, who is this?"

"This is Clare. She goes to school with me." He says, stealing quick glances my way.

"Oh. Well, uh, nice to meet you." She awkwardly still sat in her chair as she reached towards the couch to shake my hand. Her hands were small and warm and I noticed she had fake nails.

"Thank you. Nice to meet you too." I say, still undeniably mortified.

Mrs. Goldsworthy opens her mouth as if to ask me something but Eli comes to my rescue. "Actually Mom, we don't have that much time to chat. Clare has to get home and I'm her ride."

"Okay. I, uh didn't mean to impose earlier." She says apologetically to the both of us. Eli and I stand up and he rests his hand on the small of my back, leading me to the door.

"Will you wait outside? I forgot my keys in my room." I nod and sit out on the front porch, where only about 12 hours ago, early this morning I was a bawling mess. Still a mess, but less tears and more embarrassment.

"What happened to Julia?" I hear Eli's mom questions him accusingly once the door is closed.

"None of your business." He replies. I hear his footsteps fade and a minute late hear them return.

"If it makes you feel any better I like Clare. Though it wasn't the best circumstances to meet her in, she's a lot less rude than Julia."

"Thanks?" He says while opening the door.

We get into Morty silently and we head back to my house. "Thank you for coming up with an excuse to get out of there. Your mom seems nice but this really wasn't the right time to get acquainted with her."

"Yeah, I could tell." He tries to cover up his chuckle with a cough. "You were about as red as a tomato." He smirks.

"I'm sorry I'm not Captain Cucumber, who can act cool in any situation." We both start laughing and I start to feel a bit better about the situation.

"At least we were only kissing." He leers at me, and I feel my face begin to heat up again at his suggestive comment. I let my mind wander to the possibilities of things that we could have been caught doing and I feel myself shiver.

Once we arrive at my house, I see that still, no one is home. "You can come in if you want." I encourage, and Eli parks on the opposite side of the street. We walk up the front stairs and enter my house. Darcy's cheer duffle bag is missing from the front closet so I assume she had practice. My dad was probably 'working' and my mother was probably *gag* out with Glen and Jake. I feel like it's really weird how much that dude takes his kid everywhere. Especially on dates.

"We can go up to my room." I suggest. "My parents probably wouldn't be cool with me having a boy over when they aren't home so we can hide out up there." Eli nods and follows me up the stairs. I realize that he hasn't said a word to me since he made the comment about us only kissing. I wonder if his mind went to the same place mine went when he said that. My body tingles in delight at the thought. Walking closely to Eli as I led him down the hallway to my room, I thought I could almost feel the heat emanating from his body. I bite my lip as I turn the door knob and I let him pass me so I can close the door. With my back to him, I can still feel that he remains near me and after closing the door I turn around to face him.

The first thing I notice is the longing in his eyes and their fixture on my exposed cleavage due to the top button being open. Wanting to tease him I slowly undo the second button, revealing a bit more of my breasts. I look him dead in the eye as I lower my hands to the third button, but he stops me by grabbing my hand and saying "No, let me." His voice is deep and guttural, as if he was being held back from something.

The next moment. I feel his lips hot on mine and his hands on my dress, as promised, undoing the second button. My light pink bra and shoulders now bared, he greedily reaches for the fourth and final button, which causes my floral Sunday dress to fall onto the floor. He lifts me out of it and carries me to my bed. He crawls on top of me as a lingering cheetah would crawl towards it's unsuspecting prey. Feeling very vulnerable, I try using my hands to cover myself but he catches my wrists and pins them above my head then captures my lips in another one of his mind numbing kisses. Forgetting about my mostly naked body, I kiss him back with equal amount of force. Completely dismissing my bashfulness, I rip my hands from his entrapment and take hold of the hem of his shirt to push it up his back, wanting to feel, see, and smell his body. He seems to be startled, but complies and removes his t-shirt.

He hugs me close as he kisses me again and I am stimulated by the cool metal of his guitar pick necklace pressing into my skin. I hold his hips to me and I crave to feel more of his skin on mine as I feel his smooth hands snake behind my back to unfasten my bra. Soon, it is just resting on top of my chest and he lifts himself off of me and quickly removes it. He then lowers himself back onto me and I love the feeling of his exposed skin on mine. We kiss and our lips move in an erotic rhythm as his tongue explores the inside of my mouth.

I feel his hands creep towards my boobs and pause, as if in question and I find his wrists and lead them towards their intended destination. I am completely taken aback at the feeling of his hands groping me. I have felt my breasts before and have never experienced this reaction from my body. My mouth opens wider in awe and Eli latches his teeth onto my bottom lip, only nipping slightly. We are interrupted of course by the sound of one of my family members entering the front door and we longingly pull apart. As we get dressed again, I admire his tousled hair and engorged lips.

He smirks at me and leans in for a kiss as I hear the tell tale sign of my sister's heels clacking up the stairs. "Clare?" She knocks on my door and Eli lunges to my closest and he closes the door to it and I pose with a book in my hand just as Darcy enters my room clad in her girly mini skirt and half sleeve pink jacket. "Just checking to see if you were home." She looks around the room suspiciously and back at me. "Moms pissed that you ditched me at the bake sale. She's also upset that you didn't go to dinner with her and Jake and Glen."

I rolled my eyes. "I don't understand why she wants me to go but you don't have to."

"Because Jake is closer to your age and I would just be a fifth wheel." She flips her hair. "Plus, I had cheer."

"Jake is a creature." I declare.

"Mom doesn't seem to think so."

"Mom should date him then."

"Ew. But I don't really care. I have to take a shower then I'm going on a date." She gets this goofy far away look on her face.

"With who?"

"Declan Coyne." She smiles.

"He's two years younger than you."

"Two years older than you." She shrugs.

"Whatever. Go take your shower."

She squeaks a little bit with excitement as shes walking away and I can't help but shake my head as I hear her mumble something about "how mad this will make Holly J."

I close my door behind her and Eli quietly exits my closet. "So you think that Jake kid in your grade is a creeper huh?"

"I said 'creature' but that too." I laugh as his arms entrap me and pull me closer to him for a chaste kiss.

"Good. I don't like him. I've noticed the way he looks at you."

"What do you mean?"

"During lunch, even though he sits a few tables away from you, he sits at stares at you, in a way I don't like."

"Where do you sit at lunch?" I ask, surprised that he watched me and even noticed Jake.

"I don't I just go in and get my food and then I go outside. Usually I leave and go to the ravine."

"Oh." I look up at him. "You know I haven't ate in the cafeteria for a week." Or since Alli became friends with Jenna again and wanted me to move from the table Alli and I sit at alone to go to Jenna's table with all the other cheerleaders. Including my sister. "I've only known you for a week. How long have you been watching me for?"

"I don't know. Maybe since the first day of school." He shrugs. "I liked the innocent way you look. Not in like a creep way but like I don't know, you seemed so happy. Julia always has something to complain about and you just seemed the complete opposite. And it instantly attracted me to you. I think Julia might have noticed too. Maybe one day during lunch when we were getting our food she saw me looking at you. Maybe that's why she suddenly wants to be your friend and keeps trying to change you to be more like her."

"Oh. Now I don't feel so bad about betraying my friend. If she's just trying to keep her enemies closer."

"I don't want you to feel bad, Clare. I wish there was an easy way for us to be together without Julia bugging us all the time or doing something to get revenge."

"It's okay. I understand and being with you in private is better than nothing, I guess."

He looks down at the floor almost in defeat and doesn't say anything for a moment. "I supposed I should go."

I look out my window and notice the sun going down. "Yeah probably." He begins walking to my door and I put a hand on his shoulder. "You might not want to go out that way."

I say as I hear the front door open and my mother walk in and yell "Girls? Can you come down here please? I want to talk to you about something."

I open my door and yell back, "Yeah, I'll be right down but Darcy's in the shower." I turn to Eli. "Okay, you better get going." I nod at the window.

He laughs at my plan for his exit as he opens it and swings his leg over the sill and looks at the two story drop to the ground. "You know, it's an awful long way down. I may need a kiss for good luck. Or in case I don't make it." He pouts at me.

I roll my eyes and walk over to him and try giving him a sweet peck on the lips but he suddenly grabs my waist, pulling me to him and our bodies melt together and I hear the water in Darcy's shower turn off the next room over and whisper, "See you at school tomorrow."

He chuckles a second as if he's laughing about some inside joke that I wasn't aware of. "Yeah, school." He says almost sarcastically and I give him a questioning but suspicious look and he replies "I'm picking you up tomorrow. Be ready by seven thirty."

"O-okay." By the time I finish my confused response, he's halfway down the terrace that stops next to my window.

"Clare!" I hear my mother shriek. "Darcy is standing here already waiting to talk. Get down here!"

"Coming!" I yell and roll my eyes as I quickly shut my window and as I turn to leave my room, I see a black hearse driving down the street.


End file.
